The Defector (Gabriel Allon Book 9)

So far this was the best in the series. The set up and the plot were excellent. The final revenge was played out perfectly.

When readers last encountered Gabriel Allon, Israeli spy and master art restorer, he was escorting the wife of an oligarch, Ivan Kharkhov, out of Russia, along with a journalist and FSB (KGB successor) agent. All four were fleeing Russia to save their lives, but as the events of this sequel show, it's hard to escape the long reach of the modern-day Kremlin or the fury of an outraged oligarch.When this novel opens, Israeli master spy and assassin is back in Italy, restoring a Guido Reni altarpiece and debating the issue of having children with his wife, Chiara. Then Grigori Bulganov, the former FSB agent, vanishes off a street in London. Has he re-defected, returning home to Russia with insight into the way the British and Americans operate and dangerous knowledge about Allon? Or has he been snatched, in revenge for his betrayal? Allon needs to find out, even if it means flying in the face of direct orders from Shamron, his longtime boss, mentor and the head of "The Office". Not only is Allon's security at stake, but he made a promise to Grigori as they were driving to safety. "Promise me one thing, Gabriel," Grigori had said to him. "Promise me I won't end up in an unmarked grave" -- the traditional Russian punishment for betrayal. Nor is keeping that promise Allon's only motivation.That promise and Allon's investigation are just the beginning of a dramatic series of events, as Gabriel must race to save the lives of those he cares for and deliver some measure of final justice to Kharkhov. It's not, properly speaking, a spy novel, but more of a suspense thriller in which the main protagonists happen to be spies or other forms of agents. The missions that Gabriel and his team tackle are deeply personal ones, culminating in a deeply personal act of vengeance at the book's close.As with all Silva's books, the writing is careful and often eloquent. Still, anyone who has followed Gabriel and his team and occasional allies through all nine books in this series won't find many surprises outside the twists and turns of this particular plot. Gabriel is still torn between his desire for a peaceful life and his art and a deeper compulsion to do what only he (apparently) can do for his country; Shamron is still an elderly, tyrannical and rather ruthless 'retired' spy, etc. That's perhaps the single greatest flaw in this series -- while the characters' lives change (such as Gabriel meeting, falling in love with and marrying Chiara), the characters never really develop or change in significant ways. Thinking about this book after finishing it -- it's too good to stop and think while reading -- I realized that many of the passages about the thoughts of the main characters, removed from their context, could fit neatly back in to nearly any book in the series. It may sound like a quibble, but to me that means that while Silva is still able to craft a great thriller around one of the classic themes -- revenge -- his characters are getting a bit long in the tooth. Given the strength of some of his early, pre-Allon books ( The Marching Season  and  The Unlikely Spy ), I'd love to see this very good author turn his talents to some fresher material, before the plots also begin to feel repetitive. It's a tribute to Silva that this book -- which when I stepped back to think of it, was really just round two of  Moscow Rules (Gabriel Allon)  -- was such a pleasure to read.Highly recommended to the author's fans; thriller readers will also enjoy it, although I'd suggest reading Moscow Rules before this one. (It's possible to read on a stand-alone basis, but you won't get the full background and context.) Die-hard spy novel afficionados may find that they prefer some of Silva's earlier books, which involve intelligence work as well as the tradecraft showcased in this one, or else read the works of Alan Furst or Olen Steinhauer. It seems to be open season on the part of suspense/spy novel writers on Putin's Russia; another new thriller I've just read and reviewed takes aim at some of the same themes (corruption and the oligarchs), albeit in a more oblique and less suspenseful manner -- Alex Dryden's  Red to Black .

I could not put this book down until it was finished!!!! The deeper into the story the more riveting it became! One of the best in the Allon series!

The DefectorBy Daniel SilvaDisclaimer: This reviewer is a Silva fan for 2 decades. I have just finished a re-reading of the this book as part of a re-read of the Gabriel Allon Series from the beginning. For me, I now have a better and deeper understanding of the value one can get from reading a Silva book.It isn't the same the second time around. I feel differently about the story and the hero. I can not tell anyone how to write about a man in umpteen books and keep it not only enjoyable, interesting and a better use of one's time than anything the internet can provide, without wondering how does one write about the same man, doing essentially the same thing with essentially the same people in a completely unforgiving world and in an environment where treachery must always be assumed and, hopefully, avoided. This book is an example of how to overcome the insinuated barriers to superb writing. The answer is that Silva is extraordinarily passionate about his views of right and wrong, fair and not, and the varying nature of truth as it never just has one master to serve. Silva takes the news of the past and finds repetitions of that past news in today's headlines and tries to warn us all that we are doomed if we repeat the mistakes of our past. Perhaps not a new theme but a valuable one nonetheless. This book and a few others in this series are keen to remind us that we have no ally in the Kremlin, whoever 'we' are. Brutality and treachery, all to maintain the great divide between the haves and have nots in a country rich with everything the world needs or wants but cannot learn how to share for a fair return for all. The robber barons of the last century are still alive in Russia. The Soviet Union died because the robbers tired of supporting the outer republics so they abandoned them to a sort of gangster democracy. But to do that, the robbers needed to get to know everyone else's secrets and plans because competing fairly is not in their DNA.Ultimately, their egregious behavior ran afoul of our hero's sensitivities. The headline is the main message to this review. Silva's Allon is the hero. He is selfless but confident, and he loves his wives but just a hair less than his country and nothing is more important than his word. Silva admires his hero, though his hero's faults sometimes make us uncomfortable. But the essence of this hero is that he lives his life putting his views of right, wrong, love, and honor all ahead of his personal well-being or wealth or popularity. Can any of us say that we live the same way? Of course not. That is how Silva can keep us enthralled time after time.Read this book; for the first time or the second.Al Dell

Bloody, brutal and probable. It is a fictional story of behind the scenes in the world of good versus evil. The warped and cruel minds of out of control psychotic consumed with materialistic greed and power. A glimpse into the underbelly of espionage and what sometimes has to be done just to keep the world marginally safer. Fast paced grim and gripping with the ever present tinge of personal grief this is a cracking story,

Silva is a consumate writer. You always feel drawn into the action and the story is filled with fact that are convincing as you read them. His characters, especially Allon and Shamron are beautifully drawn. And everything is read against the backdrop of the struggle that the young (unfashionable) state of Israel has had to survive against its enemies.

The twelfth commandment of the Israeli intelligence community is extremely simple: `We don't wave our guns around like gangsters and make idle threats. We draw our weapons in the field for one reason and one reason only...' And, in `The Defector', this results in a lot of bodies, generally Russian or their cronies, generally with an extremely neat hole drilled in their heads.Although `The Defector' is a self-contained thriller it's effectively a sequel to  Moscow Rules  with the same good guys and the same bad guys. Basically it's Gabriel Allon against the Russian gun-running thug (turned oligarch) Ivan Kharkov. And this time, Kharkov's wife plus her children, the defector himself and Chiara Zolli - Allon's beautiful Italian-born wife - are all heavily involved.To me the book is a less than effective sequel to `Moscow Rules'; the storyline is weak in places whilst the level of violence - even accepting that Ivan Kharkov and his cohorts are extremely unpleasant and extremely vicious - frequently veers towards the gratuitous. The political element brings into play the highest levels of the American, British and Russian authorities but, unfortunately, is less than credible.Fortunately the final section, involving a high degree of last-minute co-operation between Israeli intelligence and an elite group of Russian Alpha forces, helped restore my slightly dented faith in Daniel Silva.And, before you start on `The Defector', it's a good idea to read `Moscow Rules'. Moscow Rules

My review of Daniel Silva's previous novel,  Moscow Rules , criticised it for lacking a decent, satisfying ending. 'The Defector' provides that ending; although how satisfying it is remains slightly open to question.Picking up a few months after events in Moscow Rules (which you should definitely read before tackling The Defector), the book opens with the apparent 'redefection' back to Russia from London of Gregori Bulganov, the SVR colonel who aided Gabriel Allon's escape at the end of the previous novel. That event is the catalyst that propels Gabriel back into action and kicks off a plot that wraps up the many loose threads left dangling at the end of Moscow Rules.For those who haven't tackled a Silva novel before, or at least not one featuring Gabriel Allon, I would recommend going back and starting with  The Kill Artist . Those familiar with Silva's previous novels will find that The Defector has the author's usual mix of rapid paced, spare prose, accurate factual detail, solid characterisation and up-to-the-minute plotting. It helps that most of the characters on display have appeared in at least one or more of Silva's previous novels, giving both familiarity and some additional depth to even minor players. Equally the set up, with Allon and team going up against Russian oligarch Ivan Kharkov once more, is also a familiar one, which removes the need to spend time establishing the background to the plot and as a consequence The Defector hits the ground running and doesn't stop.The pace of the book doesn't detract from the intelligence of Silva's writing. This is a smart thriller that avoids cliches or easy deus ex machina resolutions. None of the characters are impervious supermen, even if they are well trained professionals, and things go wrong as much as they go right. This lends events an air of realism that is sometimes lacking from other books in this genre.The Defector isn't the perfect espionage thriller however. As with Moscow Rules a bravura first two third is followed by a less satisfying final act. After a great buildup as Gabriel and his team use every method at their disposal (some of them pretty gruesome and questionable) to achieve their aims, all with the clock ticking, lives on the line and tesnsion building, the big final showdown ends up being a bit of a damp squib. It is possibly a more realistic conclusion than Gabriel and friends achieving the perfect victory at the first attempt would have been, but its not very emotionally satisfying, even if everyone get's their deserved comeuppance in the end.I'm also not a big fan of Silva's attempts to provide insight into his characters' emotions. This is the area where his writing is weakest as it drifts too often into the realms of overwrought 'purple prose', cod-psychology and heavy handed metaphor. When Chiara started having dream sequences about lost children I felt the need to skip forward and after numerous books I understand that Gabriel is supposed to be a tortured, romantic hero; I don't need constant recaps of past events in Vienna or repeated emotionally charged visits to his crippled ex-wife to get this point.Still, none of these minor issues are enough to truly detract from the book's overall appeal. Some may find some of the more brutal action distasteful and I would not recommend the book to anyone who is squeamish or easily offended by scenes of torture, but for everyone else this is a great contemporary thriller that wraps up yet another chapter in the life of Gabriel Allon. Role on his next adventure,  Rembrandt affair, theMoscow RulesThe Kill ArtistRembrandt affair, the

There's a kind of rage behind Daniel Silva's highly paced contemporary thrillers: rage against the enemies of Israel, who are mostly Palestinian and al-Qaeda terrorists plotting outrages against Israel and her Western allies. In MOSCOW RULES and now in this follow-up THE DEFECTOR Silva has turned his rage against the 'New Russia', the Russia of ex-KGB oligarchs like Ivan Kharkov who traffics arms to any corner of the world where there is war or unrest. Sometimes he supplies both sides in a conflict.In the previous book Kharkov's plans were foiled by Israeli superspy Gabriel Allon, and his wife and children were 'liberated' to a new life in the US. Hot for vengeance Kharkov has Grigori Bulganov kidnapped, the defector who helped Allon defeat him; Bulganov is plucked off the streets of what Silva calls "the Russian city sometimes referred to as London" (it seems to be more than just our football clubs that are in thrall to the Russian zillionaires!). Then, in a more daring raid, Allon's wife Chiara is abducted from their villa in Umbria. 'The Office' (the name Silva uses for Mossad) sanctions a rescue; as usual the CIA and MI5 are roped in.His political and propaganda agenda notwithstanding, Silva writes rattling good thrillers. This is up there with his best, galloping from Tel Aviv and London to Washington and Moscow and places in between. There's a nail-chewing climax in a snowbound Russian dacha, followed by a chilling 'epilogue' designed to hammer home the message that the Israeli secret service is not only the world's smartest but also the most ruthless. "Utterly smart and totally ruthless" just about describes the kind of writer Daniel Silva is.[Reviewer is the author of SHAIKH-DOWN]